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So, COVID-19 (coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2, whatever you call it) sucks a bit for your health but it turns out it sucks a lot for the economy. So we're extending any subscriptions that were going to expire before then out to June first (this may be extended a time or two depending on how well our savings hold up). Yeah, we know we're an extremely small cap entity and that's not going to make a whole lot of difference but it's something we felt we should do anyway for a couple reasons.
First, we as a corporation do not have paid employees. The only people we give money to are our hosts, our registrar, our CPA, and the revenooers. Which we're going to have to continue doing regardless and which we can currently afford to do for a month or two without dire risk of having to make infrastructure cutbacks. Putting money into us during this nonsense doesn't help much in directly putting food on someone's table or keeping jobs from going poof, so we'd prefer you guys put anything you were going to send us to work where it will help at least a tiny bit in keeping the businesses that your neighbors work at afloat. Which is to say, spend it locally.
Second, we're quite fond of the folks who've chosen to financially support the site and we don't want them to get dinged because of something that wasn't remotely their fault.
Now we're not shutting down the site's subscription functionality. If you feel a desire to contribute anyway, we're happy to oblige and we're not going to tell you that you can't. We're not the bosses of your wallets and it would mean extra work for me when I don't really have time to do much of anything code/admin-wise.
Also, we're only doing this automatically for current and new subscribers; we don't want to hit people who weren't interested with an unsolicited email about subscription expiration when we have to shut the extensions down. They may have quit subscribing or even frequenting the site and it's annoying as all get out to keep getting emails from sites you stopped doing business with on purpose. We're happy to handle it manually, though, if your subscription ended any time since the first of the year. Just drop a comment to this journal entry (NOT to THIS story!) and I'll take care of it as often as I have time (at least once a day).
That's all. We now return you to your regularly scheduled mix of discussion, debate, yelling at each other, and trolling.
(Oh, and you can still submit stories, too! Hint hint! --martyb)
(Score: 2) by janrinok on Monday April 20 2020, @05:37PM (11 children)
There was a discussion over on IRC regarding this very point. If anyone thinks that a post is genuinely spam then they should moderate it appropriately. If we feel that the moderation is inappropriate we can rectify it, and if anyone tries to abuse the moderation process then they will suffer the publicised administrative action. But, more importantly, we encourage everyone to protect the site so that the vast majority of us can still express ourselves freely about the topics under discussion.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 20 2020, @06:05PM (3 children)
If I had to guess, people might be reluctant to use the spam mod because of this statement in the FAQ: "If you are unsure of whether a comment is spam or not, don't use the spam mod." They might also be unfamiliar with it because it's not one of the options at Slashdot. It might also be useful to explain the disagree mod. I think it's a +0 modifier, but I'm not entirely sure what it does.
Maybe if someone uses the spam mod in good faith, genuinely believing the comment was spam, and the mod is overturned, it could be handled differently from actual abuse. If the user calmly emails the admins to explain why they believe the comment was spam, if it's a good faith difference in the interpretation of the guidelines, the one month penalty could be lifted. Obviously if this happens several times with a user, it's abuse. But if it happens once or twice and they discuss it in a civil manner with the admins, perhaps there could be a judgment call to lift the penalty.
Another option might be to allow users to hide all comments that are modded spam, even if they're browsing at -1. Spam mods are reviewed by the admins, so they'll get reversed if they're applied incorrectly. But it would be helpful if moderators read at -1 to reverse other incorrect moderations that don't get reviewed by the editors. That way, they can read at -1 and moderate up good comments that are at -1 while not wading through all the spam. I think a few minor tweaks like that and perhaps the comment score modifiers would be helpful. But I hope you don't actually change the moderation system. I don't think it's needed.
I don't think the system is broken as-is. These are just a couple of ideas to allow logged-in users more flexibility with how comments are displayed.
(Score: 2) by janrinok on Monday April 20 2020, @06:44PM (2 children)
Which is a good description of exactly what we do now
Just because someone disagrees with a statement doesn't mean that the person making the statement is trolling. People have differences of opinion in regular conversation all the time. The disagree mod is exactly what it says - but it is only useful if you then make a comment explaining why you disagree. The 0 modifier is there intentionally - the fact that someone disagrees doesn't mean the statement is incorrect, so why should it be penalised?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 20 2020, @07:02PM (1 child)
If that's your current policy for handling spam mods, that's good. I have no issue with that. I'm familiar with Slashdot but am less familiar with some of the tweaks that have been made here such as the spam mod. Thank you for clarifying.
I was suggesting that an explanation like that of the disagree mod might be a good addition the the FAQ. I agree with you that a disagree mod shouldn't be a -1. It should either be +0 or +1. The latter could be justified on the grounds that if the user disagrees with the comment yet finds it worthwhile enough to merit further discussion, it's a quality comment. I'm suggesting that you add it to the FAQ because if users understand it better, they're more likely to use it as you intend. A lot of the political discussions on this site would be better if people used the disagree mod to express their disagreement instead of troll or flamebait. And I think it's pretty easy to tell distinguish someone making good points that you disagree with from someone who is just trying to provoke angry responses. Actual shitposts try to be inflammatory and don't actually make an effort to defend their position.
I agree that it's up to the users who moderate to do their part to improve the site. Like I said, I think moderation works pretty well as-is and I don't think you need to adopt the tweaks that Azuma Hazuki is proposing. If you decide that something needs to change, I've made a few suggestions that could be considered but stop short of actually changing the moderation system. These are only suggestions. Do with them as you wish. I have no problem if you adopt them or choose not to.
Thank you for your time. I appreciate you discussing this with me.
(Score: 2) by NCommander on Saturday May 02 2020, @03:04AM
Disagree is +0, you can change the preferences how some moderations show if you have an account.
Still always moving
(Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Tuesday April 21 2020, @01:32AM (6 children)
We need to either expand what the Spam mod can be used on (examples: Eth's obvious, worthless, gratuitous "ITZ T3H J00000000000Z!" posts) then, or create something in between Spam and a simple Troll mod, which is goddamn near toothless.
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 21 2020, @04:19AM (2 children)
Jew Talmud excerpts (book that calls Christ's mother a whore & a bastard of a roman soldier):
Yebhamoth 11b: "Sexual intercourse with a little girl is permitted if she is three years of age."
Schabouth Hag. 6d: "Jews may swear falsely by use of subterfuge wording."
Hilkkoth Akum X1: "Do not save Goyim in danger of death."
Hilkkoth Akum X1: "Show no mercy to the Goyim."
Choschen Hamm 388, 15: "If it can be proven that someone has given the money of Israelites to the Goyim, a way must be found after prudent consideration to wipe him off the face of the earth."
Choschen Hamm 266,1: "A Jew may keep anything he finds which belongs to the Akum (Gentile). For he who returns lost property (to Gentiles) sins against the Law by increasing the power of the transgressors of the Law. It is praiseworthy, however, to return lost property if it is done to honor the name of God, namely, if by so doing, Christians will praise the Jews and look upon them as honorable people."
Szaaloth-Utszabot, The Book of Jore Dia 17: "A Jew should and must make a false oath when the Goyim asks if our books contain anything against them."
Baba Necia 114, 6: "The Jews are human beings, but the nations of the world are not human beings but beasts."
Simeon Haddarsen, fol. 56-D: "When the Messiah comes every Jew will have 2800 slaves."
Nidrasch Talpioth, p. 225-L: "Jehovah created the non-Jew in human form so that the Jew would not have to be served by beasts. The non-Jew is consequently an animal in human form, and condemned to serve the Jew day and night."
Aboda Sarah 37a: "A Gentile girl who is three years old can be violated."
Gad. Shas. 2:2: "A Jew may violate but not marry a non-Jewish girl."
Tosefta. Aboda Zara B, 5: "If a goy kills a goy or a Jew, he is responsible; but if a Jew kills a goy, he is NOT responsible."
Schulchan Aruch, Choszen Hamiszpat 388: "It is permitted to kill a Jewish denunciator everywhere. It is permitted to kill him even before he denounces."
Schulchan Aruch, Choszen Hamiszpat 348: "All property of other nations belongs to the Jewish nation, which, consequently, is entitled to seize upon it without any scruples."
Tosefta, Abda Zara VIII, 5: "How to interpret the word 'robbery.' A goy is forbidden to steal, rob, or take women slaves, etc., from a goy or from a Jew. But a Jew is NOT forbidden to do all this to a goy."
Seph. Jp., 92, 1: "God has given the Jews power over the possessions and blood of all nations."
Schulchan Aruch, Choszen Hamiszpat 156: "When a Jew has a Gentile in his clutches, another Jew may go to the same Gentile, lend him money and in turn deceive him, so that the Gentile shall be ruined. For the property of a Gentile, according to our law, belongs to no one, and the first Jew that passes has full right to seize it."
Schulchan Aruch, Johre Deah, 122: "A Jew is forbidden to drink from a glass of wine which a Gentile has touched, because the touch has made the wine unclean."
Nedarim 23b: "He who desires that none of his vows made during the year be valid, let him stand at the beginning of the year and declare, 'Every vow which I may make in the future shall be null'. His vows are then invalid."
Sanhedrin 59a: "Murdering Goyim is like killing a wild animal."
Abodah Zara 26b: "Even the best of the Gentiles should be killed."
Sanhedrin 59a: "A goy (Gentile) who pries into The Law (Talmud) is guilty of death."
THE JEW WILL USE 'SUBTERFUGE WORDING' but has no out on any of the above.
Jews claim anti-semitism when they are proven racists themselves from their own book of cultural laws the talmud shown in part above.
Try "jew guilt" us? Good luck that.
Want a lot more to back this up? Ask.
Of course you do NOT want more of that fact/truth that show everyone just what you REALLY are, now do you? Of course not so you will do as you say and all jews do: Censor out fact and truth that exposes them as THE SYNAGOGUE OF SATAN (Revelation from the Bible which is really old testament and jew TORAH, not the Satanic Talmud of the FAKE jew).
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 21 2020, @04:58PM
this reads like the koran
no wonder they have been at each others throats for centuries
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 21 2020, @05:02PM
The specific passage states that a girl under 3 who was violated by an adult male still qualifies for a virgin's bride-price when she ultimately marries as - given the physiological facts - no real penetration could have occurred, while a girl over 3 who was violated by an adult male would not so qualify.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 21 2020, @06:23AM (2 children)
Ethanol-fueled is a troll. However, I fail to see why it's necessary to further restrict his ability to post. If you don't think the troll mod has enough of an effect, you're more than capable of setting a -6 modifier for posts modded troll so you can avoid seeing them. You also have the ability to add Ethanol-fueled as a foe and set a -6 modifier for foes. If you don't want to see his posts, you are more than capable of ensuring you never see them. Why is it necessary to further impede his ability to post? I don't agree with his views but I also don't like censorship. Ethanol-fueled has a fairly low volume of posts and doesn't repost the same comment in an article when he gets modded down. It's not like he's straining the moderation system to deal with his trolling. He's not following around individual users and harassing them, just posting some troll comments while mixing in some genuinely worthwhile comments.
I do wish that more users would use the spam mod on APK's comments. But Ethanol-fueled is quite benign compared to APK. Absolutely nobody is forcing you to read Ethanol-fueled's comments and you are more than capable of making sure you never see a single comment from him. Shouldn't that be enough?
(Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Wednesday April 22 2020, @01:26AM (1 child)
I've already done the personal modifier and "foes to -6" thing. That's...kinda not the point. Actually it's *anon* shitposting that's bugging me; IMO the simplest solution to this is just to set anon comments to -1 by default but what the hell.
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 2) by RS3 on Friday April 24 2020, @01:43AM
Seems reasonable, but then the good AC comments will be seen by very few, and not likely get upmods to be seen by the many.
I've given this a lot of thought- it's not an easy thing to solve.
I think giving a lot more mod points, maybe based on karma, with no ceiling on karma, and 1 mod doesn't change your score by 1, but rather some percentage. Not easy, and would need a lot of collaborating, brainstorming, etc.